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“Secret” highway ultra-fast DC charging map revealed

Next summer a new network of ultra-fast electric car chargers is supposed to suddenly appear alongside major US highways. An elusive detailed route map of that system can now be revealed. Shazam!

Electrify America’s planned highway charging station map of nearly 300 locations targeted for completion in June, 2019, according to their website. The named cities and yellow areas indicate the 17 metropolitan regions which will get additional charging equipment for local drivers.

This map, of next summer’s planned Electrify America charging station routes, is so closely held that it was apparently only tweeted by Greenlots (an Electrify America partner) on or about January 23, 2018 and was then used to illustrate a single article at CleanTechnica.

This author seems to recall seeing the original tweet containing the map image and fortunately downloaded it. However, that tweet no longer seems to exist and the map does not seem to be on the Greenlots (or Electrify America) website either.

Strangely, the map shows routes and approximate charging locations that are virtually identical to an abstract, and thus harder to visualize and understand, route map hosted on Electrify America’s website since earlier this year.

In any case, neither the abstract map nor the more detailed map appear to have made their way onto many EV-related news websites. Reader comments at many EV sites regularly indicate a general lack of awareness of Electrify America’s pending coast to coast interstate system of nearly 300 150+ kW charging locations, each with between 4 to 10 charging pedestals supporting both CHAdeMO and CCS cables, targeted for completion by June, 2019 according to Electrify America’s website. Earlier plans had called for completing about 200 of the highway locations by June, 2019 with another 90 in active development.

The abstract version of the map may have first appeared last fall online at Site Selection magazine, a corporate real estate management publication, in an article about Electrify America’s search for future charging locations. It then appeared in a HybridCars article by this author in early January, 2018 after being supplied by Electrify America and was then subsequently added to Electrify America’s website. In late January it appeared in articles at the Long Tail Pipe, Car and Driver, FutureCar, and perhaps a small number of other sites.

Meanwhile, there have been multiple articles recently about European ultra-fast charging initiatives at many online EV news sites but maps of Electrify America’s imminent ultra-fast charging network in the US have not been widely published.

The 300 locations by June 2019, puts it on a par with the Tesla network in the USA circa Feb 2017.
In the UK, CCS rolling out 16 times faster than Supercharger, (and started about 3 years after Supercharger). CCS chargers overtook Superchargers in the UK about 3 or 4 months after CCS roll-out began, despite the 3 year head-start that Superchargers had.
It’s entirely possible the same thing will happen in the USA.

I have sometimes compared the first cycle Electrify America map to the US Tesla Supercharger network of early 2016. I’m not familiar with the numbers for Feb. 2017 offhand.

Tesla is being very aggressive about Supercharger network upgrades as part of the Model 3 ramp so I think it will be difficult for EA and other DC charger providers with to keep up with them on highway corridor diversity and scaling in the near future.

Great coverage, Jeff. For the California EA sites, combined with the efforts of the State of California to add 50 kW CCS/Chademo sites along I-5, 101, and other select state highways, the “not-Tesla” network will soon also be relatively robust. The challenge is that there still will be significant dead-spots along California’s east-west state highway corridors, especially north of San Francisco. For example, when I look for future plans that ANYONE might have to add anything on east-west highways 20, 36, or 299 that tie coastal 101 to central I-5 and on over to Nevada….crickets. Not even L2 charging options.

True, although you could probably drive through those gaps in a Bolt EV, I-PACE, or Model 3…. It would certainly be a problem for cars with smaller packs. In some cases, like CA-20, there are some Tesla AC charging spots that would be usable if you buy a J1772 adapter cable for around $300 or so (I’ve forgotten the exact price).

Electric charging coverage will certainly continue to get better, especially in rural areas, in later years.

Anyone know if the new 150/300 kW EVGo Baker CA CCS station under construction is a part of Electrify America or …? If Baker is an example of what the EA stations might be looking like, this will be a big, big boost to EV growth.

No, the Baker EVgo station is not part of any Electrify America partnership although Electrify America did fund EVgo to upgrade 33+ locations with either an additional 50 kW charger or upgrade a 25 kW charger to a 50 kW charger as part of getting things happening under their first cycle investment plan.

The Baker station is funded as a result of the original EVgo/NRG settlement with the State of California for bad NRG behavior during the infamous CA rolling blackouts back around 2001.

Between 4 and 10 charging spaces per location. They used to say an average of 5 spaces but recently have said about 300 locations would get about 2000 charging spaces which is an average of 6 to 7 spaces per location.

In other words, how are the local electrical distribution lines going to handle feeding all these ultra-fast chargers being installed?

That’s a good topic. I should write something more about that. The short answer, for now, is that the electrical system carries an enormous amount of power. Sudden starts and stops when drawing large amounts of power can be buffered with stationary batteries at large fast charger locations. Some solar panels, especially in rural areas, can help take some load off of the utility lines and help recharge the stationary battery when business is slow during the day.

These ideas have been calculated and prototyped but fast charging plaza designers are still learning how to offset any negative effects on the local electrical infrastructure.